How to use barge

[tianfeng]

I still don't understand the difference between a transport fleet and a barge fleet. How to use the barge? I also heard you can use barge to transport resource from small port to large port to speed up loading. Again how to make it work? Thank you in advance.

[Mike Solli]

You can use barges to move LBUs, supply or fuel. They will not transport oil or resources.

[Bradley7735]

Barges work almost the same way as transports.

You can use them to move supplies, fuel or troops. Because of their small load capacity, supplies is the best thing to use them for.

The main differences between barges and transports are: 1: they don't carry as much material. 2: they have short endurance 3: aircraft will not target them in most situations. 4: your opponent does not score points for them when sunk 5: if one is sunk, it will show up in your pool after 90 days (regenerates).

So, you want to use your barges in the front lines or in area's where the bases are very close (Solomons, Philipines, NEI, etc). Use them in places where you can't protect your valuable transports.

[tianfeng]

What's the abbreviation for barge ships? I think I haven't seen one yet. It's only Mar. 1942.

[Mike Solli]

AG. The Japanese player starts out with about 40 or so of them.

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: tianfeng

I still don't understand the difference between a transport fleet and a barge fleet. How to use the barge? I also heard you can use barge to transport resource from small port to large port to speed up loading. Again how to make it work? Thank you in advance.

I'm learning UV right now. Are barges and transports same there as they are in WiTP?

[Mike Solli]

I haven't touched UV since WitP came out. I can't remember.

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

ORIGINAL: tianfeng

I still don't understand the difference between a transport fleet and a barge fleet. How to use the barge? I also heard you can use barge to transport resource from small port to large port to speed up loading. Again how to make it work? Thank you in advance.

I'm learning UV right now. Are barges and transports same there as they are in WiTP?

Yes for barges, transports are simpler in UV (where AK=AP and AO=TK for most purposes) than in WITP.
The great thing with barges is that they give no points to the enemy, except if you scuttle them... never do that.... So you can use them in places when the enemy has total air superiority. Also they will be hit only by FBs and bombers set at naval attack at 100 ft. That is in raids they may also be bombed by patrolling planes on naval search (depending of the experience).

In UV and in WITP I use them mostly for supply transport (fuel transport is not a good idea, they use more that they can carry after some hexes) and for minor operations, like carrying a NLF from empty base to another empty base along the New Guinea shore.

[testarossa]

CHS has two AG classes with endurance 8000. One class has 10 mm belt. I put B25 on nav search 50% at 1000 ft. Suckers are hard to hit. I sunk only 8 or 9 of them in 5 months.

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: testarossa

CHS has two AG classes with endurance 8000. One class has 10 mm belt. I put B25 on nav search 50% at 1000 ft. Suckers are hard to hit. I sunk only 8 or 9 of them in 5 months.

Try the same with B-24 and Pb4Y flying naval search... they killed most of my barges.

[Lord_Calidor]

I think I read somewhere that barges can be transported by AKs to distant bases, but I couldn't find out how. Is it possible?

[FeurerKrieg]

Not sure, but if you put the barges with any ship that has a large endurance, the barges will 'bleed' off fuel from the larger ships as they go. Takes a while to get there, but they will do it. Alternatively, since Barges are slow anyways, you can send them somewhere and even if they don't have fuel, they will get there eventually due to the minimum 1 hex move rule. But that might be considered gamey.

[Reg]

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

ORIGINAL: testarossa

CHS has two AG classes with endurance 8000. One class has 10 mm belt. I put B25 on nav search 50% at 1000 ft. Suckers are hard to hit. I sunk only 8 or 9 of them in 5 months.

Try the same with B-24 and Pb4Y flying naval search... they killed most of my barges.

Type in the words 'Beaufighter Barge' into the Search engine for the Australian War Memorial's photographic database at the URL http://www.awm.gov.au/database/cas.asp to see how barges were dealt with historically.

In game terms, Beaufighters are fighter bombers and I think they will attack barges from any altitude.